


Type II Error

by LadyOfTheOldWorld



Series: Like Walking on Broken Glass [5]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Abandonment Issues, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arima's chill with Eto/Rize, Borderline Personality Disorder, Coping Mechanisms, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Eto and Rize are still cute, Eto has issues with food, F/F, F/M, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Rize's sweet but also manipulative, Self-Hatred, Self-Loathing, This is angst with 5 sconds of fluff again, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, Trans Tatara (Tokyo Ghoul), Trans Yoshimura Eto | Takatsuki Sen, Yoshimura Eto | Takatsuki Sen has Abandonment Issues, Yoshimura Eto | Takatsuki Sen has Borderline Personality Disorder, Yoshimura Eto | Takatsuki Sen has PTSD, Yoshimura Eto | Takatsuki Sen needs Therapy/a Therapist, mentioned Mating Cycles/In Heat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-06-19
Packaged: 2020-05-14 23:06:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,280
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19283059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyOfTheOldWorld/pseuds/LadyOfTheOldWorld
Summary: The morning and school passed normally, but the afternoon flipped Eto’s world on its head. -- Eto-centric.





	Type II Error

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mercyandmagic](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mercyandmagic/gifts).



> And the darkness gets yet darker. I might go back to focusing on Tatara soon? I'll try, at any rate. As always, read and note the tags; they're there for your safety. Let me know if I've missed anything I need to tag. (...Do I need to mention Tatara's unsafe binding, at this point? No? Just checking.)

Vomiting was an entirely unpleasant – but routine, by then – thing to wake up to.

Cursing and yelling quickly followed, but by then, Eto was wide awake. Let Houji think she set out everything she would need for school before going to bed because she was studious and fastidious. He didn’t need to know it was because she was always the most terrified when waking up/in the early morning. He didn’t need to know that hearing Tatara yell made her heart race so fast, it felt like it would literally find a way to escape her chest. He didn’t need to know that she barely felt safe enough to sleep, and that she felt a thousand times more unsafe waking up. Of course, that same feeling of being unsafe was why she didn’t set an alarm. If she could train herself to wake up at the same time every day, she could conceivably wake before her "father," and avoid all the pain, fear, and stress that came with the looming possibility of waking up _after_ the Chinese omega. The fact that, of late, she hadn't been waking up on time made all those feelings and more claw away at her insides.

The fight continued on as Eto got dressed as quickly as she dared, thanking the gods for her equally ingrained habit of showering once Tatara was asleep – or, lately, once Houji had coaxed him to bed – the night before. Once dressed, glasses askew on her face from yanking her uniform shirt over head as fast as she could, the tiny girl unlocked and opened her door a crack to peer out into the hallway. (Being allowed to lock her door was a profound relief; it had saved her from being beaten within an inch of her life more than once, over the past few months.) The bathroom was across the hall from her room; as her door opened to the left if one were standing in the hall, she got a clear view of the landing and the door to the master bedroom without putting herself in harms way. Hearing the door to the bathroom connected to her "parents" bedroom slam made her flinch, but she took the opportunity to dart across the hall as it was given.

She knew what Tatara's slamming doors sounded like, after all.

As with everything she did in the mornings, Eto brushed her teeth and hair as briskly as possible, in and out of the bathroom amid Tatara and Houji shouting at each other through their bathroom door. Grabbing her school bag, the green-haired girl checked she had everything she needed (mostly from the previous night’s homework), and then fled as quickly as her tiny feet could carry her. Once downstairs, she paused just long enough to shove on her boots before racing out the door. A block away – pointedly _not_ wondering if she could actually still hear them screaming, or if it were all in her head – Eto paused just long enough to pull out her phone. As much as she probably should have disliked using her new… _friend_ as an alibi, leaving Houji a text that she would be getting breakfast with Rize was a simple cover story to hide behind. That done, she tucked her phone in her skirt pocket and resumed her journey to school, albeit at a much slower pace now.

There was barely time to find a bathroom and contour her face into softness before the first bell.

* * *

Kamishiro Rize would never cease to amaze Eto.

Despite how intentionally distant she was with her entire class, the beautiful girl continued to refuse to take no for an answer, and spent as much time around Eto as she could. Unlike her twin sister, Ihei Hairu (no-one knew why they had different last names; no-one was brave enough to ask) ignored Eto completely, which suited the older girl just fine. Still, that neither had anything to do with, nor explained why Rize clung so ardently. Eto really didn’t understand it, but she’d given up on changing the purple-haired girl’s mind. Besides, it was… _nice_ to have someone she could spend time with, when she couldn’t be with Kishou. Which should have made Eto uncomfortable, but honestly just didn’t. The fact that apparently the two siblings had talked, and were okay with dating Eto simultaneously, helped. Not that Eto would’ve personally called it _dating_ , but found herself gripped by a terror not unlike the one Tatara made her feel, whenever she thought about bringing it up and risking pushing either of them away.

Generally speaking, lunch was when the two got to spent the most time together, since Eto didn’t want to chance being with Rize after school just yet. She had no idea how her "parents" would react, so in the spirit of saving herself any more pain and stress, the smaller omega never brought it up. But that had nothing to do with how Rize would all but fling herself at Eto, as soon as the bell for lunch sounded. Nothing to do with how Rize would literally _feed_ Eto if she had to, just to make sure her girlfriend ate at least _something_. And even less to do with the way that Rize just… _cared_. Though there had been numerous instances where she would subtly take care of Eto, the one that stood out the most had happened about a week ago. Lunch had begun as normal, with Rize rushing over to Eto’s desk to claim her lap, the younger girl’s posse (Banjou and friends) in tow as always. As usual, Rize had closed up _Dear Kafka_ ’s notebook and carefully slid it into Eto’s desk, but setting down her bento ended the parallels there.

One of the kids always trailing behind Bnajou (as he trailed after Rize) wondered why all of Rize’s food looked weird, and that set her off on one of her usual gleeful tirades, though minus some of he usual glee. "I’m already really pretty, but I’m not growing the way I want," Rize huffed, pouting more for affect than anything else. "So, I looked up food that could help me, and I found out that soy can definitely help! I mean, look at Hairu," here her indignant pout came back, coupled with annoyance. "We’re twins, but she has bigger tits than me, even though she’s an alpha! It’s not _fair_!" While Rize trailed off into affected petulant whining, which predictably made Banjou begin showering her with compliments and reassurances, Eto found herself suddenly glad she could hide behind Rize’s shoulder. After all, no-one needed to see the blush she could feel heating her cheeks. Rize didn’t _actually_ care that Hairu was more developed, she’d made that clear, which left only one real reason why she’d go out of her way like this.

The change in diet was for _Eto_ 's sake – to help her feel more comfortable in her own skin.

* * *

The morning and school passed normally, but the afternoon flipped Eto’s world on its head.

For one thing, crystal clear silence had greeted her ears, upon Eto cautiously easing the front door open a bit. (After what had led to "the incident" with Kishou a month ago, she had been given her own key, though she couldn’t fathom _why_.) For another, a quick check to the shoes set just inside the door revealed she wasn’t alone; both Houji and Tatara were there as well. That realization made something she couldn’t identify twist inside her, but an inhale didn’t reveal anything off scent-wise, which just made her all the more confused and concerned. Easing the door closed as quietly as she could manage, the tiny omega held her breath as she released the handle to allow the latch to click, but only _after_ toeing off her shoes to set them in the small space left on the mat for them. The sound of it piercing the silence – feeling for all the world like a _gunshot_ – made her heart begin thundering in her chest, anxiety and nausea rising even if it didn’t seem to have been heard by anyone else.

Doing her best to calm herself down at least a little bit, rationalizing that _she would have to be able to react at a moment’s notice if need be_ as best she could, Eto slid on her slippers and began creeping down the hall. Unlike in the morning, she didn’t dare move quicker than a few millimeters a second. Silencing her breathing as best she could, she shifted her focus to keeping all her senses alert for anything and everything all the while. It couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes to tiptoe from the front door to the open archway into the kitchen/dining room, but with her entire body wound tight like a coiled spring, it felt like an endless eternity to Eto. Just out of sight, she spied Tatara and Houji seated at the kitchen table. The ravenette was rubbing the omega male’s back, speaking softly. For a few moments, she watched Tatara warily; he looked – _ill_ , actually. Paler than usual, and haggard, like he’d just recently thrown up.

Then, a realization slammed into her like a ton of bricks, and she started shaking.

Tatara was _sober_.

Feeling the foundation of her world break must have come with some exclamation because, almost immediately upon realizing that, Eto watched Houji’s grey gaze shift in her direction. She couldn’t read him, she had never been able to, but could imagine that he was annoyed at her breaking what looked to have been an intimate moment. What _else_ could he have possibly felt, when the recognition that they weren’t alone made Tatara sit up straight and roughly shove him away? Nothing else would have made any _sense_  – but that careening train of thought was silenced when Houji actually spoke to her. Rare of an occurrence as it was, it shocked her back into full awareness.

"Eto," he called, voice clear but quiet, in deference to his mate’s – hangover? It looked enough like one, from where Eto was standing. "Come over here." As if she weren’t _nauseatingly_ capable of understanding Chinese, he had switched to Japanese. If his words had been meant to be _gentle_ , they didn’t register to her as such, the feeling only intensifying when he continued.

"We need to talk."

Somehow, she managed a nod. Somehow, she managed to force her feet to not be numb, her limbs to work, her breathing to steady. Somehow, she managed to make her way across the kitchen to the table. Somehow, she managed to keep her hands from shaking as she pulled out a chair and then dropped into it. Somehow, she managed to not completely go to pieces then and there. Somehow, she kept at least a thin veneer of calm in place. If her choice of seat – across the table, as far away from them both as she could possibly be, without getting in trouble for _not_ sitting – bothered or surprised him, the police officer made no comment in regards to it.

"We – well, how to put this…" Houji began, and then broke off, frowning. Reaching for Tatara, where the omega had leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest – expression gone as cold and unreadable as if he had slipped a physical mask in place – the ravenette quickly retracted his hand at the warning growl he received for his effort. The intense surreal feeling she was getting from this entire situation was making Eto’s stomach tie itself in knots, feeling unmoored and like she couldn’t breathe. This _wasn’t_ how things like this were supposed to go. She knew how to react to them screaming at each other, she knew how to deal with Tatara screaming at her, she knew how to deal with him hitting her over and over again. Hell, she even knew how to react to Houji having to restrain him from killing her. But _this_? She had no idea how to react to this, how to deal with it, how to protect herself – and it was terrifying beyond words. Then Houji’s voice ripped her from her spiraling thoughts.

"…I suppose direct would be best." If he were chagrined, or in any other way affected by the Chinese male’s reaction, he didn’t show it. "Things are going to be changing over the next few months, changes we’ll need to face as a family – "

Blood was rushing in her ears, pounding with all the force of a thunderstorm. Not that she needed to hear what he was saying, of course, probably gone as white as Tatara. She didn’t need to hear the words to know what they meant for her. She didn’t need to register the word that began with ' _p_ ,' and was as good as saying her days were numbered. Because of course she should have realized what was going on sooner, even if there were no way she could have. Not even alcoholics threw up every morning like clockwork. Not even omegas who were intentionally fucking up their bodies didn’t have heats, if they weren’t on suppressants. Not even Tatara at his worst had ever flown into a rage just from hearing her _breathing_ , before now. She should have known this would happen; she was a monumental idiot for thinking it wouldn’t. How stupid was she, for even dreaming for a _moment_ they would deal with her much longer? What kind of _delusional child_ was she?!

Who would _ever_ want _her_ – when they could have their _own_ children, instead?

Flinging the chair aside, Eto fled the house, heedless of Houji's shouting after her.

**Author's Note:**

> A Type II Error (type 2 error) is to accept the null hypothesis -- that nothing would change -- but to discover that it was incorrect.


End file.
